WEYMOUTH — Betty Beecher’s voice rises with excitement as she recalls buying her first stove from George Washington TV and Appliance 40 years ago.
“Up until then, I had a small countertop,” Beecher recalls. “This new stove had four burners and each one could do something different: melt butter, reheat whatever you needed.”
“Ever since we moved to Weymouth in 1982, all the equipment we’ve bought has been Toma,” she said. “Washer, Dryer, Wall Oven, Fridge, Microwave.” Our son Mark also shopped at Toma when he got married and lived in Braintree – it carried on for generations.”
George Washington Toma, who founded the East Weymouth company in 1953, died on May 19 at the age of 94.
The news brought back fond memories of a different era for Beecher, 99. She recalled meeting Toma and his wife Ginny, who died in 2020 at the age of 88, at a local shop following his retirement.
“He was very personable and always wore his George Washington Toma jacket,” she said.
Toma died in a hospice in Milton after a short illness. His son George Anthony Toma, who has run the company since his father’s retirement in 1991, spoke to his father in his final days.
“I’ve always told him that I think the harder you work, the happier you are and we’re all very lucky,” his son said.
A private service was held on May 27 for family and close friends, including Valerie MacLeod, 80, of Weymouth, the first female staff member Toma hired in 1983. She retired in 2020 due to the pandemic.
“I started out in the office, and back then he was doing everything, sales and service, and it was a great place to work,” said MacLeod. “Every time he had a client, he would do what he could for them as if they were family and that has never changed.”
“If someone called the day before Thanksgiving and said their stove broke, they’d go out themselves and if they couldn’t fix it, they’d have a new one shipped out the same day. When the Carmelites at Roxbury needed air conditioning.” On a very hot summer’s day, he made sure one was supplied.
“George Washington Toma came from a generation that lived to serve other people.”
Valerie MacLeod from Weymouth
MacLeod, who later became a manager, said staff were told to always ask customers how they found out about the store. This led to many “lovely stories” about personal attention and service calls customers had received.
Toma herself, she said, reminded her of her own father, with a strong sense of humor, one-liners, and his point of view, which he was sure to get across:
“There was so much brightness and despite the sharpness, it was said well,” she said.
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George Washington Toma was born on February 22, 1929 in Quincy. His parents had just emigrated from Italy and their son was named after the famous American President whose birthday it was.
“His family was very poor in material resources, yet rich in love for one another,” said George Anthony Toma. “Family was and is everything. Dad was the baby of the family and learned that that’s the most important thing in life because he grew up with very little. His parents and older brothers and sisters set an example for him.” and made sure he never went without.”
Toma served in the US Army where he studied electronics and came home to work for an electronics company in Weymouth hanging up rooftop antennas, although he disliked heights. In 1953, Toma, who was 25 and had $800, and a friend started Weymouth TV, a repair shop on lower Jackson Square.
He enjoyed helping his customers, many of whom were elderly. He met his wife at a dance at Moseley’s in Dedham in 1950. They married in 1956 and had three sons and a daughter.
Although he retired in 1991 at the age of 62, he continued to drop by the store, chatting to customers, sweeping the floor and consulting with his son. One of the store’s most successful advertising campaigns has been to mark its birthday: every February 22nd there was a Presidents Day sale, where Toma would dress up as the Founding Father, wear a tricorn hat and wig, and give away cherry pies.
The cherry pie campaign caught the attention of Edith Martha Rothman of Milton, who also bought all of her equipment there. In 2019, when Rothman turned 100, she decided to celebrate her birthday with a centennial celebration.
She sent Toma, who turned 90 that same day, a birthday card that read, “You’re George Washington, I’m Martha! We have the same birthday. I just want you to know that George and Martha are still around.” He loved it. On their birthdays, his son George Anthony Toma would take his father to Rothman’s home in Milton.
She waited and called out, “Are you George Washington?”
“Last time I checked,” he said as he walked into their kitchen, adding, “You were kissed by George Washington.” They reminisced and joked about aging.
“You look better than me,” he said.
“It took me two hours to look like this,” she said.
“We started with him yesterday,” joked Toma’s son.
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Toma framed her card and hung it in his kitchen on the wall next to the chair he sat in every morning. After more than 50 years on Broad Street in Weymouth, he moved to a retirement home in Rockland following the death of his wife and the framed card went with him.
“He treated everyone he met as if they were family and continued the lessons he learned as a child,” his son said. “Dad believed that if he took care of people, they would take care of him, and that was the foundation on which he built George Washington Toma TV and Appliance.”
The company celebrated its 70th anniversary this year.
“He set an example for all of us by caring about people, always putting principle before profit and what we now call ‘paying up front,'” his son said. “He was way ahead of his time!”
Keeping a family together in a family business is no easy task. As his son said, “You can’t have two bosses.”
When asked about the biggest changes in the business, his son replied that color TV “changed everything for everyone.” My dad grew up fixing tube TVs and carrying around his big tube cases and we would go in after school and test the tubes on his tube tester.
“As televisions transitioned to solid state and modular, it changed the way we did business. He used to visit customers once or twice a year to replace the tube and he really got to know his customers and their children. I think a service.” The call cost $5. The new electronics were much more reliable.
“We had everyone’s story in a 3 x 5 file. It worked, but the computers saved us so much time and made everyone’s lives better. Of course, my dad hated spending and didn’t like change, so that.” It wasn’t easy for me to get him involved. … I can still remember the hard time he gave me when I bought a cash register. We had a piggy bank; why do we need them?”
When his son decided to open a second shop in Brockton in 2008, Toma praised his initiative. Toma’s daughter Donna now runs the Brockton store for his son.
Today George Anthony Toma, 65, speaks from the perspective of the time.
“I’ve worked with my father for over 30 years and I don’t think I realized until now how lucky I was,” he said. “He taught me so many things and sometimes even what not to do.
“Anyone who grew up in a family business knows how difficult it can be. We have shared many great, but also difficult and sometimes painful times together, and I would not give up on any of them.”
Toma taught his children to be proud of everything they did. He told them that people “are judged by what we do, and we should be proud to put our name on everything we do.”
In his later years, he looked back at the ways he had changed people’s lives.
“I can only hope that I can follow in his footsteps and make him proud,” said his son.
In retirement, Toma volunteered for Meals on Wheels in Weymouth for around ten years.
“He loved helping people in need and he knew a lot of those people didn’t have families and needed someone to talk to,” said George Anthony Toma.
After the death of his wife, Toma missed her very much. He stayed busy and worked out at his home gym until the age of 93. It helped him go out into the community.
“People sang him our jingle and recognized him wherever he went,” his son said. “In his last years he always wore a Toma shirt and he liked that people knew who he was. And they always told nice stories about how we took care of them.”
Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.
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